Nodoka's Secret
by atdanimefreak
Summary: Genma knew he was going to be gone with Ranma a long time. One last romp with Nodoka can't hurt... Can it? PG for VERY light swearing and, in the future, a little action.
1. Irritaion

Ranma Satome, heir to the Satome Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, one of only two know aqua-transsexuals, fiancé to Akane Tendo, fiancé to Ukyou Kuonji, husband (albeit only according to Chinese Amazon law) of Xian Pu (A.K.A. Shampoo) and consequently Son-in-Law (Chinese Amazon law, but still law) of the Amazon matriarch Kou Lun (A.K.A. Cologne, Granny, and Shampoo's- Great-Grandmother), Kodchi Kuno's love interest (god save his soul), fiancé of thirty women he doesn't know (mostly because of one stupid, greedy, immoral panda-man), and man amongst men (even when he's a girl, thank-you very much), was irritated  
  
Ranma was irritated because he was being followed, and he hated being followed. This was because many of the ordeals in his life, of which he had one monthly, had started, or involved, being followed. He was irritated because the month was almost up, and he had thought that this was going to be an OOM (one ordeal month).  
  
He had futilely hoped that his pursuers had been following someone else. Up until that last turn he had made it had been possible that they had been following the old lady with the umbrella. It had been possible, but not likely.  
  
Ranma made a quick decision, ducked into an ally, hid the vegetables that Kasumi had asked him to pick up under a broken pallet leaning against the right hand building, and prepared himself for a fight. Actually, Ranma was always ready for a fight so all he did was take up a relaxed stance facing the mouth of the ally, as the other end was blocked by debris.  
  
Someone not well versed in martial arts and did not now Ranma would not see a stance, they see a young man standing in the center of the ally. Ranma, however, stood slightly bent at the knees ready to jump, and with his arms loosely at his sides.  
  
As he stood two youths, rounded the corner, and entered the ally. Seeing him they stopped short, staring at him with wide eyes. Ranma took the opportunity their stunted silence granted and evaluated them both. He decided that they couldn't be older than twelve and, while one was female and the other was male and they styled their hair differently, they could otherwise have been identical twins, and had to be at least siblings.  
  
Most people who saw the two next to each other would have difficulty indicating which was which sex. Ranma, however, was something of an expert on the subject, since he could turn sexes at the drop of a bucket (literally).  
  
Interestingly, they where both wearing traditional, if somewhat threadbare, Japanese dress. The girl wore a bright red kimono, and the boy wore a black harori over an equally black kimono shirt with a dark, grey hakama. While this attire would not have been out of place one hundred years ago in Japan, it was quite a rare form of dress today.  
  
Both had the unremarkable black, straight hair and brown eyes of most Japanese. The boy wore his in an simple, if pristine, pony tail that looked like it reached at least to the small of his back, it was difficult for Ranma to tell since the boy in question was facing him. The girl wore her hair in a close cropped style, and Ranma found himself thinking that principle Kuno would have like her, since her hair was even shorter than what he called for. That is, he thought that until he saw the braid that was about a centimeter in diameter that ran from the back of her head, over her shoulder, and down to her waist.  
  
The girl turned her head, causing her rat-tail to twitch, and whispered to her brother, "It is most assuredly him."  
  
Ranma was not able to hear her, but recently he had gotten tiered of people whispering about him, and had learned to read lips. It had actually only taken him a couple of days to learn, and the following week to master. Now Ranma was able to decipher what anyone in his field of view said, even if they where sub-vocalizing.  
  
"I concur," the boy said, also whispering in vain, "He is exactly as mother described him."  
  
Ranma decided not to tip his hand yet and tell them he had seen what they said, since it was possible that they could give him some further information that way. While not actually honorable, his actions where not uncalled for. The two could have spoken out loud instead of trying to speak behind his back. or was that in front of his back?  
  
"What do you want?" he said loudly and clearly, "I'm kind of in a hurry."  
  
"You are Ranma Satome?" the girl asked in an equally clear, cultured voice.  
  
Ranma sighed, they where probably after him for something his stupid dad did. In Ranma's not-humble-at-all opinion, all his problems could be traced back to his father, if one went back far enough.  
  
He turned to the girl and flashed an impish smile. His smile had gotten him out of almost as much trouble as it had gotten him into, and he new it. "Look, if your father and my father arranged for us to be married, I'm taken by at least.um", he made a show of counting with his fingers; he knew it made him look stupid, but if the two siblings underestimated him, that was great, "hmm. four women, I think? Two of 'em are arranged, probably before you."  
  
The girls eyes bulged and she began to splutter, "But... how... what was... that's not... what are you trying..." The boy sniggered behind his hand. When he got a hold on himself he looked askance at his sister, who was giving him the evil eye, and whispered an apology.  
  
The sister turned back to Ranma with a look of long suffering. "I am unquestionably not here to marry you," she said in a mollifying tone, "that would be quite impossible."  
  
It was Ranma's turn to look confused. "Huh?" he said, confusion as heavy on his voice as it was on his face.  
  
The boy finally spoke; his voice was as eloquent as his sisters, if so soft Ranma almost didn't hear him. "I believe it would help if we introduced ourselves?" he said in a questioning tone, looking at his sister. He continued more clearly as she reluctantly nodded, "I am Ronita," he said indicating himself, "and this is my sister, Ruryuki." He said pointing at her, "Ranma, we are your brother and sister."  
  
Ranma promptly fell on his ass.  
  
Author's notes: First of all this is my first Ranma fanfiction (even through I've been a fan for years, and read fanfiction quite a bit), but unlike some people I want you to tell me when I'm doing a bad job. In fact I beg you to! However if you do make a comment, good or bad, please give details. In other words make "This sucks!" into, "This sucks because." and, "I liked this." into, "I liked this. I especially liked.".  
  
On a side note I will do my best not to mix Japanese into my writing. It's a personal pet peeve of mine when fanfiction writers of anime do that. However there is no English equivalent to words describing Japanese dress. Those of you that don't know what a kimono, hakama, or harori are, can go to www.ichiroya.com to see what they are.  
  
As always please review or, send comments and criticism to atdanimefreak@.yahoo.com. 


	2. Confusion

Three young people exited an ally, and Officer Tanaka noted this as strange. She did so partially because of their apparel, and their appearance. The three where made up of one older boy, wearing a red silk shirt, along with black pants, in a style she had never seen before. This young man also sported a pigtail.  
  
The two who accompanied him, a boy and a girl at apparently the same age, happened to be quite a bit younger than their cohort. These two were dressed in traditional Japanese clothing, but had somewhat less conservative hairstyles. Obviously siblings, they differed greatly in style and bearing from their comrade, but looked similar physically. The strangeness did not stop there.  
  
Traffic Officer Horiki Tanaka had just been transferred to the area from a larger precinct, but she had been in Nerima long enough to know all the roads and paths of pedestrian traffic on her regular beat (although not long enough to recognize the mistake she was about to make). She knew that the ally the small group had just exited was blocked by garbage on the other side, and that it was impossible to get through. Logically, the kids must have had some business in the ally. In Horiki Tanaka's experience (namely, movies and television), the only business conducted in an ally was illegal.  
  
'Yippee!' she thought excitedly, 'If I can catch these kids in some dishonest act, maybe the chief will see what an asset I am! Then maybe I can be a real cop again, instead of a lousy meter-maid.'  
  
She was a "lousy meter-maid" because jobs on the force were awarded partially by seniority. However, it had not been a coincidence that Horiki had been transferred to Nerima, despite the fact that she had scored near the top of her class in training.  
  
She had always done her job efficiently and without biased, just as it had said in the manual. Was it her fault that the Mayor had double- parked? Of course not. Was it her fault the standard procedure for double- parking was to tow the offending vehicle? No! And when the Mayor had come out to see his beautiful, new car being hauled away, and demanded she stop, was it her fault the manual did not mention any exemptions? Nope!  
  
While the ticket and tow had been deemed legal, that did not stopped her superiors from transferring her. Oh, they had given a valid reason why she was being reassigned (some hog-wash about equal distribution of force and seniority), but she knew the truth of the matter. Besides, she had been transferred to NERIMA, and Horiki had heard, in training, that being transferred to Nerima was a more serious punishment than being canned.  
  
However, Horiki Tanaka did not intend to give up on her dream. Horiki knew, from almost every cop movie she had ever seen, that if she made a big arrest all would be forgiven (at least until the sequel).  
  
Unfortunately for Horiki, Nerima seemed notoriously free of crime. For three months she had diligently patrolled her allotted district, which was the north market and it's surrounding streets. In that time she had only been able to write one ticket, and that had been for jaywalking!  
  
Which is how Horiki Tanaka ended up as the third person to follow Ranma in one day.  
  
Some of the more seasoned officers in the precinct would have been able to warn her about confronting Ranma Satome (or any martial artist even remotely approaching his caliber) without backup... lots and lots of backup... like, say, the Japanese Air Defense Force. They would have told her that any crimes these high-powered martial artists committed, usually only amounted to a civil infraction at worst. In fact, if there was a complaint directed at one of them it was usually remedied quite quickly by others in the group. In Ranma's case, most often by himself. This was because most were obsessed with honor (except when some other obsession got in their way).  
  
The same group was responsible for the low occurrence of serious crime in the district, and therefore worth any trouble they caused. This was because first offenders of said serious crimes found themselves on the wrong end of an equally serious beating, in addition to going through the normal justice system. The kind of beating that leaves you laid-up in a hospital for months. Second offenders mysteriously acquired a disability, some of which only appeared in Nerima.  
  
Case in point: a man who had been accused of two accounts of rape, claimed a withered, old, ghoul on a stick had burned a small area on his back with a coal. He said this was the source of his inability to lift anything heavier than a couple pounds. This preventing him from ever committing rape a third time, and gave him the dubious honor of having the malady named after him.  
  
Another, a pimp who liked to kick his girls, was found in an ally with two small tares in his skin, near his calf, like those found when one has a compound fracture witch expose bones to the air. Mysteriously, no bone was visible, and his femurs seemed to be missing. Medical examiners had later reported that the pimp had indeed suffered a fracture. Following that, his leg bones had been ground to powder while still inside his body! There was as yet nobody willing to become a third offender, so nobody knew what happened to them.  
  
Officer Tanaka would have indeed befitted from the advice of her more experienced peers. It was too bad that, with her still having the stigma of being recently transferred to the district, the other cops kept their distance.  
  
Lacking their sagely advice, she continued to follow the three miscreants. She didn't have to follow them long, as they turned and headed into an ice cream shop, her favorite in the area coincidentally. Taking a booth next to her quarry's, with her back to them, she ordered her usual.  
  
Upon placing her order, she heard a relived sigh coming from one of her targets. Horiki, displaying an uncanny grasp of the situation (for one half a second), realized that at least one member of the group had known she was following them. 'They were thrown off when I ordered my usual, since that indicates I come here often. He must think that means I probably wasn't following them, but was just coincidentally going to the same place.' she mused.  
  
Horiki was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard one the men from the crew behind her speak to the waiter. "Can I get a parfait mister?" the eldest of the trio asked in a voice so sweet that it should have been issued with a dose of insulin. "And could you add a couple a scoops for me, pretty please?" Horiki could almost hear him batting his eyelashes, as she turned slightly to look at his back out of her peripheral vision.  
  
"Sir, first of all, if you want extra ice cream you'll have to pay for it," the waiter said admonishingly, "and secondly, I ain't gay, and your freakin' me out, so stop that."  
  
She saw the boy look down at himself, and then his ears promptly turned red. "Ah, sorry about that," he said in a slightly gruff voice, "I'd explain, but you wouldn't believe me." Then, gesturing to the negative, "I'll just take a normal parfait."  
  
"And you two?" the waiter asked in a put-upon voice.  
  
There was a pause, and then, sounding as though she was beginning to doubt his sanity, the girl spoke. "Uh-yes, I will have a single scoop of vanilla ice cream, and my brother will have the same in chocolate."  
  
There was a halt in conversation until the waiter left, and then the boy who had mad a fool of himself spoke. "Sorry about that," he said consolingly. Then changing his tone of voice back to slightly gruff "So, you two think your one of the family?"  
  
'The Family?' Horiki thought with some trepidation. 'Does he mean the mob?'  
  
"Of course we are," the girl answered a bit indignantly, "have we done anything to indicate that we are not?"  
  
"Other than talkin' like some hoydie-toydie? Lets just say I'm skeptical." the young man retorted. "Just answer a couple a questions for me, 'kay?" Her response must have been affirmative, since he went on. "Neither of ya was adopted by dried up monkey of an old man clamin' to be the head of the family?" the one doing the questioning said inquisitively.  
  
"Did you happen to miss a dose of medication you where supposed to take this morning?" the girl asked in her 'dealing with a mental case' voice.  
  
"No... Jus' answer the question." the pigtailed one retorted.  
  
"We are members of your family by birth," the girl said, putting a bit more haughtiness into her voice than she had naturally.  
  
"Then is your pops Genma Satome, or your mother Nodoka Satome?"  
  
"Well that would be a prerequisite for us to be siblings, now wouldn't it?" the girl answered sarcastically.  
  
"Yes or no?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Witch is it?" Horiki heard the older boy ask.  
  
"Both, of course."  
  
"How 'bout you?" the larger boy asked the other, as she saw him shift his body to look at him. "You been pretty quite." Horiki did not hear the response clearly, but instead an indiscernible mumble came from the other side. It sounded like an affirmative.  
  
The waiter chose this moment to arrive with their ice cream. "so that's two single scoops, one chocolate, one vanilla," he said giving the cups to their respective recipients, and staying as far away as possible from the third member of the gang, "and one parfait, no extra scoops." As he said this last part the waiter quickly placed the mentioned dish on the edge of the table, and backed away. "You want the check now, or are you going to pay at the desk?"  
  
"I will take it now please," the girl said. "One more thing before you go?" she asked.  
  
"What is it hon?" the server asked with a little unease.  
  
"Well we are having somewhat of a dispute," she said, sounding slightly perturbed, and indicating the older member of her group. "Do we seem related?"  
  
'What does that have to do with the mob?' the officer wondered.  
  
"Well if you weren't dressed so differently, you folks would look like 'three pees in a pod', if you'll forgive the cliché."  
  
Officer Tanaka took a second look as well, turning a bit more to see all their faces (Ranma had his turned to the other man), and came to the same conclusion. She had not noticed before because of the much more glaring similarities between the younger two. 'Drat,' she thought with some scorn, 'the family they were talking about wasn't the mob, but their family.'  
  
The officer was about to get up and leave, but remembered that she had ordered something, and would have to wait for it to arrive. 'Oh well, maybe it will degenerate into a domestic dispute, and I can mediate or something.' She considered this slightly more likely than average, since the older boy seemed to be a borderline psycho.  
  
"Thank you," the young girl said to her server, pulling some yen from a wallet she had pulled from somewhere on her person. "You may keep the change." The larger boy in her group and the waiter both gawked at her for a moment.  
  
"Any time hon!" the waiter said while still staring at the generous tip.  
  
"Does that settle the question, Ranma?" The girl said directing the question at her older relative.  
  
"I guess it does!" As Ranma said this he brightened quite a bit. "Wow, I got a sister!" Saying this he moved, all the dishes of ice cream out of the way, and awkwardly reached across the table to hug his sister. "And a brother too," he said including the mentioned individual in his embrace, "this is amazing!"  
  
After returning their long lost brothers fond greeting, somewhat hesitantly, the other two siblings sat back down. While both where quite restrained, a small smile creased each of their faces, and the eves dropping officer couldn't help but smile. "I'm sure you have a few more questions for us, now that we have established the validity of our claim." The young girl said.  
  
"Well yeah," Ranma said with, from the sound of his voice, a smile plastered to his face, and scratching the back of his head. "Sorry about questioning ya like that, it's just I've had some bad experiences with people claimin' ta be who they ain't."  
  
"In that case, it's quite understandable," the girl said, waving her hand in a negative gesture.  
  
"Well guess the most obvious question is, where have you two been all this time?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Well, mother realized she was pregnant with us just after you and father had gone," the girl explained.  
  
"Yes, the two of us were born just eight and a half months after you left," her twin continued for her. "She was never able to tell father."  
  
"No wonder you two talk like ya do," Ranma said, his voice still laced with wonder, "She is one high class lady."  
  
"Oh, yes she is," his sister agreed, her twin brother nodding in turn for a moment. He stopped suddenly, and stared suspiciously at his brother. As he leaned over and whispered something into his sister's ear, her expression grew to match his. "How did you know that, if you were five when you last saw her?"  
  
"Eh yeah, about that." Ranma's voice and body language both said he was uncomfortable. "I'd like to explain somewhere less public since it usually needs me ta demonstrate." Both twins reluctantly nodded. "Tell ya what, ya each ask me somethin', and as long as I can tell ya with out explainin' that, I will."  
  
The boy's expression switched from one of suspicion to one of determination. "Why have you been avoiding mother?"  
  
The girl sighed at this, and gave her brother a long-suffering look. "I thought we agreed to wait to ask that earlier, brother."  
  
"It's OK, really," Ranma said waving his hands in a warding gesture, trying to resolve an argument before it occurred. "I think I can answer that, without talking about my secret as long as you don't ask about a couple a details."  
  
"I must admit," the girl said, switching her gaze to Ranma, "that is a question at the center of my thoughts."  
  
"Well, do you two know about the contract?" Ranma asked with some trepidation.  
  
"Only that one exists," The girl said sighing again. "From what we have overheard from mother."  
  
"She sometimes pulls out a picture of you and father when she is alone, and speaks to it," the younger of her two brothers said by way of explanation, sounding a bit sad.  
  
Ranma's only response for several seconds was to look down at the table in front of him. He must have spotted his ice cream when he looked back up, because he slid it back in front of him, and took a bite. "Well it's like this, when our pops got it into his thick skull that we needed to leave, Mom tried to stop him," Ranma said with a sigh.  
  
"Mother is a formidable woman," his sister asked, "how was he able to convince her?"  
  
"Pops told her that I was gonna take over the Satome School of Martial Arts one day," Ranma groused. "If that was gonna happen I'd need to be strong, like the moron knows anything about that, and Mom's love would make me soft."  
  
Meanwhile Horiki was beginning to loose her temper. 'What is taking this guy so long to explain a stupid peace of paper!' She began to grip her as yet unused spoon. 'This is almost as bad as a soap opera!' As she glanced down at her utensil her irritation rose several notches, 'And where, in the name of Sam Spade, is my ICE CREAM?'  
  
"So where does the contract fit in?" the young girl said, echoing most of the officer's thoughts.  
  
"Dad said it was a matter a honor, so Mom came up with a contract," Ranma said putting quite a bit of displeasure into the word 'contract'. "It said if I don't grow up to be a man among men, me and Pops gotta perform Seppuku." As his siblings eyes widened, and their mouths dropped open Ranma continued, "Well, pops signed the contract, and had me do a hand- print since I couldn't write yet."  
  
Recovering from her shock, his sister was the next to speak, "That will be a problem considering the incident with the waiter earlier," she observed.  
  
"I think that's like a symptom, if that's the word, of the thing I was talkin' about," Ranma said cryptically. "Lets get out of here, I'll give ya a demonstration at the park, it's empty this time of day, and the bath rooms got hot water," Ranma said, standing up and gesturing the other two too follow him. "You'll think I'm crazy if ya don't see it."  
  
Just as the trio walked by the register on the way to the door, Officer Tanaka saw the waiter exit the kitchen area. "Hey Horiki, sorry about the wait," he lifted the dish he was carrying in gesture. "These floating banana boats are a pain to make."  
  
Horiki saw Ranma turn just after the word 'floating', his eyes wide, and his face a mask of horror. As he turned, his elbow knocked a jar of marbles in a guess-how-many jar of the counter. The jar flew, in a strange trajectory, and landed at the waiters feet, shattering.  
  
Naturally the waiter fell. Naturally he dropped the dish. However the laws of nature must have realized their earlier mistake with the jar. So they had the dish, witch Horiki saw was her usual (a miniature boat, loaded with a banana split, and placed in a larger dish of water), fly in a reverse trajectory of the jar's. This caused it to land on Ranma.  
  
Nature at this point must have reviewed the rule book, and come and realized this was also unnatural. Nature then must have taken a vacation to avoid the boss, because a very unnatural thing occurred next.  
  
The water seamed to grow in quantity, obscuring Ranma for an instant. When Officer Horiki Tanaka next saw Ranma, he was standing in the same spot, but something seemed different.  
  
His hair was a slightly redder shade, bud this could be accounted for by the fact that it was wet, and dye may have washed out of it. He seemed a lightly shorter... make that a lot shorter, but that could have been Horiki's imagination. What was difficult to explain where the rather large orbs that appeared on his chest.  
  
As Horiki racked he mind for a reasonable explanation for these developments, Nature must have returned from vacation. This was evidenced by the fact that she did a very natural thing humans do in stressful situations. She passed out. Author's notes: Sorry about the delay. It was originally my intention to post one chapter a month. Unfortunately this time that was not possible for various and sundry reasons. This story will be updated every other month (still, that's better than most authors on this site).  
  
Questions, comments, or complaints can be directed to atdanimefreak@yahoo.com or, if you post a review, please leave your e-mail. 


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